This is my first blog as the new Relocalization Network Manager. Having already read many of your entries about what local groups are doing, I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with all of you. With your help, we will make Relocalize.net the best possible learning community it can be for developing positive community-based responses to over-reliance on nonrenewable energy.

So I’m writing to start a conversation with you. As Relocalization Network Manager, my role is to nurture, connect and support the development of our local Post Carbon and relocalization groups and the people within them. The Post Carbon Institute’s Relocalization Network is committed to fostering efforts to develop local sustainable, healthy communities by developing the knowledge, skills, tools, and training needed to thrive in a Post Carbon world.

What are the qualities and capabilities of our Relocalization Network and its communities?

As a way of introduction, I want to let you know how I see the emerging groups dedicated to building local human societies and restoring the Earth’s natural systems.

Human social systems are living systems. Two reasons people find systems thinking difficult are because systems evolve in a nonlinear fashion and they contain networks of relationships. These qualities make them difficult to measure quantifiably or to predict. The evolution of the Western scientific worldview has led us in the direction of disregarding that which we can’t numerically measure and predict.

We need to develop a new ways of thinking about growing human networks. Our focus moves from examining the parts to working with the whole, from objects to relationships, from structure to process. Systems develop, emerge and evolve. To understand community, we must understand renewal, change and transformation. We are all walking this new path together and we are learning as we go.

News from Companions on the Journey

I’ve just attended the Regional Localization Networking Conference in Willits, California, (May 18-20) with representatives of 17 local groups. I’d like to share some of the patterns I heard about during the weekend’s conversations. I met wonderful people. I heard some great success stories, which I am working on bringing to you.

Rather than building large local relocalization groups, many groups talked about acting as catalysts or incubators, or becoming part of already existing organizations:
• One group is developing a talent and interest database because people were happy to work on small teams on a short term project as long as they didn’t have to go to meetings. They just wanted to give their talents effectively on something personally meaningful to them.
• Several groups have partnered with and revitalized larger or older organization, like the WELL in Willits, California, which is working with the local Grange to renew local agriculture.
• Others are bringing their special knowledge about Peak Oil and relocalization to partner with kindred organizations like BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies).

I also heard stories about struggle. Projects failed. Some groups lost members. People complained about being alone and doing everything. Burnout was evident in many leaders. Some people felt speaking about Peak Oil didn’t make them welcome anywhere. It’s painful and lonely to be out of denial when so many of the people around you still believe we will have endless oil forever. People committed to this work are brave.

Some people admitted they didn’t want to share their more difficult experiences. But sharing what doesn’t work is as important as sharing what does work. You and I know that we don’t have time to repeat each others’ mistakes. That’s why the Relocalization Network is so valuable, because by sharing we can all learn more quickly. It’s also critical to have a safe place to talk about the hard stuff. It’s tremendously relieving to find out you are not alone.

For my part, I will be working with you and Post Carbon staff developing resources and training that addresses learning to lead, facilitating meetings, and other grassroots skills at this web site and beyond.

Resources for the Journey:

Here at the Relocalization Network, we will be bringing you this kind of content that you have told us you want: group building skills, volunteer project management tools, fundraising resources and the skills of growing food, fuel and fiber locally. We also invite you to share your group’s stories as well as favorite websites, news stories, and your blogs. In the end, we want Relocalize.net to be your website, a place where you can find support and encouragement, a place on the web where your group can shine and you can connect with other like-minded souls and groups across the country and around the world.

Long-term community sustainability rests on personal sustainability. Yes, the work we are all undertaking is hard work, but celebration and collaboration lighten the load. We encourage you to share how you have learned to take care of yourself while doing the work of building strong, healthy communities. With a community emerging to share the journey, we are becoming expert in practicing informed improvisation. To harness the power of synergy we need to improvise collaboratively and cooperatively.

I am happy today to be taking this journey with you all and the rest of the staff at Post Carbon Institute, and I look forward to getting to know you in the days ahead. I will be calling on groups in the coming days. But don’t wait for my call, e-mail me anytime at janet@postcarbon.org
Let the conversation begin!

-Janet Beazlie
Relocalization Network Manager
Post Carbon Institute,Sebastopol, California, USA